Zoso
It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time.
Now that Mafia 2 is less than a month away, I decided to revisit the original and relive one of my most favorite games. Let me first say that I did not play Mafia when it was initially released. I have never been an avid PC gamer and it took me until 2009 to actually play through the game. I instantly fell in love and have now played it 4 times.
Mafia was made by Illusion Softworks(now 2K Czech) and released in 2002. It follows the story of cab driver Tommy Angelo and his rise through the Mafia in the 1930s fictional city of Lost Heaven. Mafia is a fairly unique open world game in that it's much closer to a linear third person shooter than a sandbox game. The world acts as a backdrop to where the missions take place.
What really surprised me the first time I played Mafia was the emphasis on the story and realism. While a lot of open world games encourage you to mess around and give you lots of freedom, Mafia intentionally restricts the player to create a compelling narrative within a convincing world. Cops pull you over for speeding and running red lights, Tommy can only take a few bullets before dying, cars accelerate slowly and require gasoline to drive, some guns have a lot of recoil and are hard to control, and there are very few things to do outside of the main missions except for exploring the city and occasionally doing side missions for a friendly mechanic.
It was a big change from what I was used to in other open world games. While the restrictions sound like bad things, they actually immersed me further into the world and story. I didn't find myself constantly distracted by pointless side activities and I was never asking "why I am I doing this?". Every mission has a very specific purpose and they all greatly contribute to the story.
The actual story of Mafia isn't anything too out of the ordinary, but it's quite good for a videogame and it's executed very well. It's rare that a videogame can pull off a mature storyline and make it feel compelling, but Mafia succeeds. I'd also put it in the running for best videogame ending. Perhaps the best part of the story is Tommy's character development. Certain scenes with Frank, Paulie, & the priest come to mind as times when I was really fascinated by Tommy's moral choices.
As for the gameplay, most missions take place in large set pieces around the city such as the hotel, farm, airport, parking garage, harbor, steamboat, prison, and art gallery. There's quite a variety of missions - while driving and shooting are the two main gameplay components, some missions also emphasize stealth. A few of these missions are absolutely huge and take a while to complete. Specifically, the airport and the harbor are really wide open areas where you're given a vague direction and expected to find what you're looking for. For being a linear game some of these missions are fairly open ended.
One of my favorite aspects of Mafia is the overall atmosphere. This is mainly achieved through the graphics and the soundtrack. Despite being 8 years old, Mafia still looks quite beautiful. The main characters faces particularly amaze me. The only problem is the terrible draw distance, but thankfully this can be fixed through mods. Each main section of Lost Heaven has its own music from artists such as Django Reinhardt & The Mills Brothers. The orchestral soundtrack was composed by Vladimir Simunek and provides some truly haunting music for each mission. The main theme in particular is quite beautiful.
The missions themselves also have fantastic atmosphere. Mafia does not have a dynamic day/night schedule. Instead the developers chose to control the weather for each mission. This goes a long way in making some of the missions very atmospheric. The mission A Trip to the Countryside immediately springs to mind. The first time I played this mission the combination of thunderstorms and creaky barns made me unexpectedly fearful of what I would encounter on this farm. The abandoned prison tower and the steamboat are two other levels with lovely atmosphere.
For as much as I love this game it certainly has its flaws. To me, the most problematic things are the melee combat and the buddy AI. Thankfully there only 2 missions that force you to use melee combat, but these missions are my least favorite because of it. The buddy AI is not very intelligent, but it's not really a problem until you get to a certain mission(parking garage) in which your two AI friends are determined to kill themselves anyway they can. While the story is great, there are certain parts that I wish they expanded on(specifically Tommy joining the mafia, his relationship with Sarah, & Morello's involvement in the plot). Also, the voice acting for the main characters is mostly fantastic, but nearly all of the background characters have really terrible voice actors that I find pretty distracting.
Overall Mafia is a truly unique experience. It shares obvious similarities with other open world titles, but it just feels so different. Its a game that understands drama and is able to tell a compelling story. And despite its flaws, I love nearly everything about it. I hope that Mafia II can deliver an experience on par with this incredible game.
So what about GAF have you played Mafia? Like it? Didnt like it? Please share your experiences.
Mafia was made by Illusion Softworks(now 2K Czech) and released in 2002. It follows the story of cab driver Tommy Angelo and his rise through the Mafia in the 1930s fictional city of Lost Heaven. Mafia is a fairly unique open world game in that it's much closer to a linear third person shooter than a sandbox game. The world acts as a backdrop to where the missions take place.
What really surprised me the first time I played Mafia was the emphasis on the story and realism. While a lot of open world games encourage you to mess around and give you lots of freedom, Mafia intentionally restricts the player to create a compelling narrative within a convincing world. Cops pull you over for speeding and running red lights, Tommy can only take a few bullets before dying, cars accelerate slowly and require gasoline to drive, some guns have a lot of recoil and are hard to control, and there are very few things to do outside of the main missions except for exploring the city and occasionally doing side missions for a friendly mechanic.
It was a big change from what I was used to in other open world games. While the restrictions sound like bad things, they actually immersed me further into the world and story. I didn't find myself constantly distracted by pointless side activities and I was never asking "why I am I doing this?". Every mission has a very specific purpose and they all greatly contribute to the story.
The actual story of Mafia isn't anything too out of the ordinary, but it's quite good for a videogame and it's executed very well. It's rare that a videogame can pull off a mature storyline and make it feel compelling, but Mafia succeeds. I'd also put it in the running for best videogame ending. Perhaps the best part of the story is Tommy's character development. Certain scenes with Frank, Paulie, & the priest come to mind as times when I was really fascinated by Tommy's moral choices.
As for the gameplay, most missions take place in large set pieces around the city such as the hotel, farm, airport, parking garage, harbor, steamboat, prison, and art gallery. There's quite a variety of missions - while driving and shooting are the two main gameplay components, some missions also emphasize stealth. A few of these missions are absolutely huge and take a while to complete. Specifically, the airport and the harbor are really wide open areas where you're given a vague direction and expected to find what you're looking for. For being a linear game some of these missions are fairly open ended.
One of my favorite aspects of Mafia is the overall atmosphere. This is mainly achieved through the graphics and the soundtrack. Despite being 8 years old, Mafia still looks quite beautiful. The main characters faces particularly amaze me. The only problem is the terrible draw distance, but thankfully this can be fixed through mods. Each main section of Lost Heaven has its own music from artists such as Django Reinhardt & The Mills Brothers. The orchestral soundtrack was composed by Vladimir Simunek and provides some truly haunting music for each mission. The main theme in particular is quite beautiful.
The missions themselves also have fantastic atmosphere. Mafia does not have a dynamic day/night schedule. Instead the developers chose to control the weather for each mission. This goes a long way in making some of the missions very atmospheric. The mission A Trip to the Countryside immediately springs to mind. The first time I played this mission the combination of thunderstorms and creaky barns made me unexpectedly fearful of what I would encounter on this farm. The abandoned prison tower and the steamboat are two other levels with lovely atmosphere.
For as much as I love this game it certainly has its flaws. To me, the most problematic things are the melee combat and the buddy AI. Thankfully there only 2 missions that force you to use melee combat, but these missions are my least favorite because of it. The buddy AI is not very intelligent, but it's not really a problem until you get to a certain mission(parking garage) in which your two AI friends are determined to kill themselves anyway they can. While the story is great, there are certain parts that I wish they expanded on(specifically Tommy joining the mafia, his relationship with Sarah, & Morello's involvement in the plot). Also, the voice acting for the main characters is mostly fantastic, but nearly all of the background characters have really terrible voice actors that I find pretty distracting.
Overall Mafia is a truly unique experience. It shares obvious similarities with other open world titles, but it just feels so different. Its a game that understands drama and is able to tell a compelling story. And despite its flaws, I love nearly everything about it. I hope that Mafia II can deliver an experience on par with this incredible game.
So what about GAF have you played Mafia? Like it? Didnt like it? Please share your experiences.
